George RR Martin Says HBO Max Changes Are Affecting ‘Game Of Thrones’ Spin-Offs

Another month, another blog update from George RR Martin where among other things, he promises us he’s still working on Winds of Winter. Sure, sure, but the more interesting bit of news comes in regard to all the in-development Game of Thrones spin-offs supposedly in the works at HBO, and apparently new management of WB Discovery is slowing things down a bit as they look to cut costs. And guess what’s really expensive? Game of Thrones universe shows.

Here’s what Martin says about the state of the Thrones spin-offs, where House of the Dragon season 2 is already good to go:

“I did take a few days off for the holidays, I confess. Shame on me, I guess. But now I am back in the salt mine, working… working on so many bloody things, my head may soon explode. Yes, WINDS OF WINTER, yes, yes. And HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, season two. And several of the other successor shows that we’re developing with HBO.(Some of those are moving faster than others, as is always the case with development. None have been greenlit yet, though we are hoping… maybe soon. A couple have been shelved, but I would not agree that they are dead. You can take something off the shelf as easily as you can put it on the shelf. All the changes at HBO Max have impacted us, certainly).”

Martin does not go through any of the shows by name, but the ones we’ve heard about in the past that seemed closest to production were the Nymeria series, the Dunk and Egg series and the Jon Snow sequel series that Kit Harrington was pitching, that Martin seemed to approve of.

Martin specifically says that the “changes at HBO Max” have impacted them, and as WB Discovery tries to dig itself out of a pile of debt, it does seem likely they’ll be less prone to write blank checks for an infinite number of Thrones spin-offs. Even if WB Discovery has claimed that Game of Thrones is an essential IP to their future plans, alongside things like DC and Harry Potter universes, it does stand to reason that some grand network of prequels and spin-offs could be reduced to fewer shows, or those shows could have smaller budgets than they might have had otherwise.

House of the Dragon has been a big hit for HBO, and has washed some of the taste of the last few seasons of Game of Thrones out of fans’ mouths. But it seems they are going to need to be especially choosy with what actually makes it to production next, given the current situation over at HBO. It’s a strange scenario, given that HBO felt like the place with unlimited funds to greenlight whatever prestige projects it wanted. Now it feels like it’s Amazon doing that, albeit producing things of lesser quality, while HBO and HBO Max are being forced to diet under new management.

While I expect at least one more spin-off to make it to air in the next year or two besides House of the Dragon, seeing some huge MCU-like slate of series does seem increasingly unlikely, given what Martin is saying here.

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